Lakers trainer Gary Vitti much more upbeat this season

Lakers' Athletic trainer Gary Vitti looks Kobe Bryant #24 after he hurt his ankle during their game against the Warriors at the Staples Center in Los Angeles Friday, April 12, 2013. The Lakers beat the Warriors 118-116. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer)

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak needed to talk with Vitti. So did Kobe Bryant after running on a weight-bearing treadmill at 75 percent of his body weight as he rehabs his surgically repaired left Achilles tendon. Vitti then returned to his office and thumbed through his appointment book. Other players soon asked Vitti to tape them.

“I’m only going to get interrupted once,” Vitti insisted before his colleagues proved otherwise.

Vitti called this routine “par for the course” as he enters the Lakers’ training camp beginning Sept. 28 in what will become his 30th year with the organization. He described the 2012-13 season differently, though. Vitti ranked it “the toughest year for me,” one that pales only to when Magic Johnson abruptly retired and announced in 1991 he had tested positive for HIV.

The crowded training room last season marked one of the many reasons the championship-caliber Lakers unraveled with a first-round sweep to the San Antonio Spurs. With the Lakers’ roster missing a combined 184 contests, Vitti seemingly encountered a real-life Operation board game.

“I was afraid to go to work,” said Vitti, who has trained a franchise that has won him eight championship rings in 12 NBA Finals appearances. “You were always waiting for the other shoe to fall off. You don’t want to feel that way. You want to think positive.”

Despite Vitti writing such messages on the Lakers’ whiteboard, securing that mindset seemed easier said than done. Vitti believed such injuries proved more devastating than when Johnson and Byron Scott pulled their hamstrings during the Lakers’ four-game series loss to the Detroit Pistons in the 1989 NBA Finals.

“If I was a player, I would’ve thought, ‘Coach, don’t put me into the game,’ ” Vitti said. “If we could get through a game without someone getting hurt, that was a victory.”

Rarely did that happen in a season Vitti chalked up to “a lot of bad luck.”

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Steve Nash experienced what Vitti called a “fluke fracture” in his left leg two games into the season and was sidelined for seven weeks as he experienced unexpected nerve damage. He then missed eight more games, including two postseason appearances, because of back and hamstring injuries. Steve Blake stepped on a parking lot strip before the season, providing a weird omen to a 37-game absence because of abdominal and groin issues. An injured hamstring also kept him out of the last two playoff games.

Pau Gasol missed 33 games for ailments including plantar fascia in his right foot, a concussion and knee tendinosis, contributing to a career-low 13.7 points on 46.6 percent shooting. Dwight Howard’s limitations on his surgically repaired back and torn labrum in his right shoulder made his lone season with the Lakers painful and frustrating. Jordan Hill missed 53 games after having hip surgery. Metta World Peace’s most productive year in four seasons with the Lakers soured after tearing a meniscus in his left knee. He sat out six games and appeared limited in the postseason.

Most notably, Bryant tore his left Achilles tendon in mid-April, shattering any optimism on the Lakers’ playoff fortunes. Coach Mike D’Antoni sparked criticism for playing Bryant an average of 45.6 minutes per game in the previous seven contests.

“This guy hasn’t had a lot of time off over the last few years,” Vitti said of Bryant, who had competed in two Olympics and in three NBA Finals appearances in recent seasons. “To attribute it to a certain number of games where he played more minutes is being short-sighted.”

He estimated Bryant remains a “few weeks away” before advancing to full-weight bearing running and then basketball-related activities. Vitti also said “there’s no projected date” on whether Bryant will play in the Lakers’ season opener Oct. 29 against the Clippers or in any of the team’s eight exhibition games through Oct. 25.

“I thought he was going to be worse with pushing, pushing, pushing,” Vitti said of Bryant. “But he’s been very, very smart about the entire process.”

Almost.

Bryant jumped off a 40-foot high dive, something he soon posted on Vine, a social media video player.

“I wasn’t real happy with it,” Vitti said. “I initially thought it was like when he jumped over the car.”

Vitti referred to Bryant’s Nike commercial filmed five years ago that featured special effects making him appear to leap over a speeding Aston Martin. After realizing Bryant’s diving-board stunt was real, Vitti jokingly referred to Bryant as Greg Louganis, the U.S. Olympic gold medalist who suffered a concussion in the 1988 Seoul Olympics after hitting his head on the springboard.

“He didn’t think that was funny,” Vitti said of Bryant. “At least he was smart enough to plant his toes.”

Bryant also seemed smart enough with other things. He had surgery on his Achilles tendon the day after his injury. Lakers physical therapist Judy Seto and strength & conditioning coach Tim DiFrancesco traveled with Bryant this summer and fit in rehab during trips to China, Italy and Brazil. Bryant also has focused on improving what Vitti calls the “kinetic chain” which involves strengthening his Achilles tendon, legs, knees, back and core to maintain equilibrium. Vitti also suggested Bryant should sleep more without sharing specifics.

“He’s well aware of it and it’s a difficult thing to control,” Vitti said of Bryant, who’s considered a night owl. “It may be time to go to sleep and you want to go to sleep, but it doesn’t mean you can go to sleep.”

The Lakers hope this approach will help Bryant closely replicate last season’s output, when he averaged 27.3 points on 46.3 percent shooting, six assists and 5.6 rebounds.

“He’ll come back from this and he’ll be as athletic as he was last year, but not as athletic as he used to be,” Vitti said. “He may bring some other new stuff that you haven’t seen yet.”

Vitti sounded more tempered with his expectations for Nash, whom he described as “feeling great” after spending this offseason rehabbing his hamstring.

“He might be a guy that would be better off reducing his minutes,” Vitti said of Nash, who played an average of 32.5 minutes per game last season. “Because he wasn’t himself last year, let’s see what he’s like in camp. We’re not going to beat the guy up.”

Vitti wouldn’t reveal the ideal playing time for Nash, but floated the idea about D’Antoni resting him for certain games. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has adopted a similar strategy with aging stars Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. Vitti added he won’t outline any similar scenarios for Bryant until he returns.

“These guys do everything right and that’s why they can still play at the level they’re playing. But Mother Nature is going to play a role,” Vitti said of Bryant, 35, and Nash, 39. “If they played in Europe once or twice a week, they’d be unbelievable. But the NBA is a different animal. As you get older, the recovery time becomes a bigger issue.”

Vitti offered mostly positive health assessments on the rest of the Lakers’ roster.

Gasol advanced to basketball-related drills in Spain and is expected to report to training camp fully healthy after undergoing a procedure in May that entailed having a probe inserted into both of his knees to eliminate scar tissue. Vitti reported complete rehabs for Hill (hip), Blake (hamstring) and Jodie Meeks, who missed the last two playoff games because of a partially torn ligament in his left ankle. The only question mark involves second-round draft pick Ryan Kelly, whom Vitti said remains “a few weeks away” from running at full body weight on a treadmill while rehabbing a surgically repaired right foot.

Vitti’s three tenets for maximizing health include sleep, ice water immersion and nutrition. The Lakers have instructed their players to eat grass-fed meats and vegetables while avoiding sugar, carbohydrates and processed food.

Vitti also suggested a few things for the Lakers’ 13-hour flight to and from China next month for a pair of exhibition games. Drink water instead of caffeinated or alcoholic beverages to avoid dehydration. Walk occasionally on the plane to prevent leg stiffness. Don’t nap upon arrival since it would delay adjusting to the 15-hour time difference.

Still, with the Lakers far from championship favorites, Vitti believes any success this season goes beyond health.

“If we get on the court and are fragmented as a team, it doesn’t make a difference that you worked that hard,” Vitti said. “You have to have a head coach and have guys buy into what he’s doing. We have to come together as a team, believe in each other and trust each other.”

Vitti sounded encouraged the Lakers will have that attitude after seeing nearly everyone in recent weeks in the trainer’s room and informal workouts. The lone exception among the team’s 16 players involves Gasol, who trains in his native Spain each offseason.

Save for a three-week vacation in August with his wife, Martha, to his house in Settefratti, Italy and a trip to Prague in the Czech Republic, Vitti’s schedule this offseason stayed busy. Players kept the trainer’s room full each day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. With the Lakers’ hope to field a healthier roster this season, Vitti encounters constant interruptions.

That still beats the Lakers’ feeling last season when every trip to the trainer’s room became as enjoyable as most visits to the DMV.

“It was a very difficult situation,” Vitti said. “We were all over the place. This year will be much different.”